I is a Long Memoried Woman Wider Text

Question 1

“the fields of sugarcane”
Night is her Robe

Answer 1

In Night is her Robe, another poem in this collection, there is, once again, a great element of disregarding consequences when the actions that cause said consequences are deemed to be worth it. In this poem, a slave woman briefly escapes “the fields of sugarcane” at night, in order to reach “her island forest”. Nichols uses the “fields of sugarcane” as a metaphor for prison bars, representing the slave woman escaping from her imprisonment in slavery to “her island forest”, where she can feel as though she is home.

Question 2

“quivering and alert”
Night is her Robe

Answer 2

Through repeatedly describing the woman as “quivering and alert” throughout the poem, Nichols not only clearly emphasises and creates an atmosphere of fear, but also creates a slight feeling of excitement and thrill, with both of these feelings being associated with the risk of being caught doing something that may have consequences. Through this, Nichols implies that what this woman is doing is greatly punishable, but is worth the consequences if she can gain a period of freedom. Similarly to the ideas presented in Ala, Nichols uses the “[careful]” demeanour of this woman, as she is “bending” and “stalking”, to promote the practice of greatly considering one’s actions and their consequences. In addition to this, through the use of the slave woman’s furtive behaviour, Nichols once again displays the slave woman’s understanding of what will happen to her if she is caught, implying that the power “to harm and to heal” is worth the brief risk of being caught. Through this, Nichols provides another example of someone ignoring the consequences of their actions on themselves in order to create an overall positive outcome, with the slave woman taking the risk of being killed in order to “heal” the other slaves.

Question 3

“only the better to rise and strike again”
Skin teeth

Answer 3

Skin teeth is another poem in this collection, which is narrated from the first-person perspective of a slave woman who resists the temptation to rebel in order to wait for the best time to “rise and strike”, contrasting the previous ideas of acting impulsively. Through the use of the word “massa”, Nichols highlights the stereotypical language that the slavers would expect a harmless slave woman to have, creating a facade of compliance, clearly showing another example of a person truly considering how to act in order to create the best outcome. However, in the case of this poem, unlike the previously mentioned poems, the slave woman is shown to have restraint and decide that altering her behaviour and “smiling” at the slavers will allow her to “rise and strike again” in the future, providing another example of someone altering their behaviour due to the fear of consequences.